32 research outputs found
A balance sheet of life.
No full textThe memoirs were written 1998 in London. The author describes the Rothenberg family's history going back to the late 18th century. Helmut Rothenberg's great-grandfather Emil Rothenberg was born 1853 in Goettingen. His mother died three years later, and Emil was brought up with relatives. In 1879 Emil Rothenberg married Fanny Karpf, whose ancestors came from southern Germany. Emil and Fanny lived in Nuernberg and had seven children. Their oldest son Isaak, the author's father, was born in 1880. He became a senior manager at the brass works of Aron Hirsch & Son in Halberstadt. In 1914 Isaak Rothenberg married Dora Moses, who came from a large orthodox family. Isaak and Dora Rothenberg had two sons; Helmut, born in 1915, was the oldest. His brother Karl-Heinz was born in 1917. In 1920 the family moved to Frankfurt, where Isaak Rothenberg joined a manufacturing business. Memories of the Rhineland occupation by French troops and the time of inflation after World War I. Helmut attended "Musterschule", a school based on Johann Pestalozzi's principles of education. School trip to London in 1930. Private piano lessons and growing interest in music. Rising Nazism. Helmut Rothenberg graduated in 1933, shortly after Hitler had become chancellor of Germany. A few months later he left Frankfurt for England. He stayed with friends of his father in Cheshunt, where he started to work as a chartered accountant. Helmut's brother Heinz (Henry) joined him in 1934, as the condition in his school in Frankfurt had become intolerable. Summer vocations with their parents in Suffolk. In 1939 Isaak and Dora Rothenberg were able to emigrate to England - shortly before the outbreak of war with Germany. Henry joined the Pioneer Corps in 1939, while Helmut worked for the War Office. The family moved to London in 1940. Recollection of air raids and situation as enemy aliens.Helmut Rothenberg started his own business in 1945, and shortly thereafter he married his fiancée Annema Hannes. In 1946 their son John Daniel was born. Description of his professional accomplishments. Memories of colleagues and friends. Their second son Robert Michael was born in 1950.Helmut Rothenberg was born in 1915 in Halberstadt, Germany. He emigrated to England in March 1933, where he started work as a chartered accountant. His brother Henry joined him in 1934. Their parents Isaak and Dora Rothenberg managed to emigrate to England shortly before the outbreak of war with Germany in 1939. In 1945 Helmut married Annema Hannes, a former medical student and Jewish émigré from Breslau. They had three children together and two children from Annema's previous marriage.Synopsis in fileChildhoodIn 1959 Judith Kay was born. Their children and grandchildren live in London, Israel and New York
British immigration control procedures and Jewish refugees 1933-1942.
No full textPhDThis thesis is an historical account of the British
government's regulation of the immigration to the United
Kingdom of Jewish refugees in flight from Nazi persecution.
The focus of the study is the administration of immigration
controls, with particular emphasis on the groups of refugees
for whom entry was possible and the conditions subject to
which they were admitted. The administrative process is also
examined in the context of policy. The results of the
government's efforts to control the influx are set against
policy goals, in order to assess both the extent to which
the quest for control was successful, and the extent to
which it led to unintended consequences. The relationship
between policy and procedure is thus a key theme of this
study.
The bulk of the thesis is concerned with policy-making and
administration within government, and is based on documents
in the Public Record Office(PRO). Other sources used include
private papers of ministers and officials, records of Jewish
organisations, archives of refugee committees and
interviews, listed in the bibliography. The material largely
concerns the work of Whitehall departments, interdepartmental
relations and activities at Cabinet-level. Home
Office policy and practice are covered in particular detail.
The contributions of other government departments,
particularly the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Labour and
the Treasury, are also discussed. Another important topic is
the policy-making and administrative role of nongovernmental
organisations, especially refugee committees.
The introduction is followed by a chapter outlining the
legal and administrative history of immigration control
since 1905. succeeding chapters deal chronologically with
the British response to the immigration of Jewish refugees
from 1933 to 1942. The conclusion discusses whether British
policy was humanitarian or self-interested. Two appendixes
contain brief biographical notes on persons relevant to the
thesis and a list of Home Secretaries and Home Office
Permanent Under Secretaries
Musikstädte as real and imaginary soundscapes: urban musical images as literary motifs in twentieth-century German modernism
No full textPhDThis study examines German literary images of musical life as part of the wider sound identity of the modern German city at the turn of the twentieth century. Focussing on a forty-year period from 1890 to 1930, synonymous with the emergence of the modern German metropolis as an aesthetic object, the project assesses, compares and contrasts how musical life in the Musikstädte was perceived and portrayed by writers in an increasingly noisy urban environment. How does urban musical life influence and condition city writings? What are the differences and similarities between the writings on various musical cities? Can an urban textual sound identity be derived from these differences and similarities? The approach employed to answer these questions is a new, cross-disciplinary one to urban sound in literature, moving beyond reading the key sounds of the urban soundscape using urban musicology, sensorial anthropology and cultural poetics towards a literary contextualisation of the urban aural experience.
The literary motifs of the symphony, the gramophone and urban noise are put under the spotlight through the analysis of a wide range of modernist works by authors who have a special relationship with music. At the centre of this analysis are the Kaffeehausliteratur authors Hermann Bahr, Alfred Polgar and Peter Altenberg, the then Munich-based author Thomas Mann and the lesser known René Schickele. The analysis of these particular works is framed in the music-geographical context of the Musikstadt and literary underpinnings of this topos, ranging from Ingeborg Bachmann to Hans Mayer and, once again, Thomas Mann. In analysing these texts, the methodological approach devised by Strohm, who identifies the blending of a range of urban sounds as a definition of urban space and identity, is applied. His ideas combine historical literary
analysis, musical history and urban sociology. They are rarely used in the analysis of the auditory environment.Arts and Humanities Research Council
Westfield TrustWestfield Trust Studentship
Arts and Humanities Reseach Council (AHRC
Karl Polanyi’s the great transformation: Perverse effects, protectionism and gemeinschaft
No full textDrawing upon Karl Polanyi’s journalistic writings and unpublished lectures from the 1920s and 1930s, this article reconstructs the lineaments of his research programme that was to assume its finished form in The Great Transformation. It identifies and corrects a common misinterpretation of the thesis of that book, and argues that Polanyi’s basic theoretical framework is best conceived as Tönniesian: the ‘protective counter-movement’ of The Great Transformation is Gemeinschaft, understood dynamically, while the market society is Gesellschaft. It examines the two central mechanisms by which, in Polanyi’s understanding, Gesellschaft broke down in the mid-twentieth century: the ‘clash between democracy and capitalism,’ and a doctrine of ‘perverse effects’ whereby political intervention in markets impairs profitability and saps the vitality of the market system
The soft-focus lens and Anglo-American pictorialism
No full textElectronic version excludes illustrations for which permission has not been granted by the rights holderThe history, practice and aesthetic of the soft focus lens in photography is elucidated and developed from its earliest statements of need to the current time with a particular emphasis on its role in the development of the Pictorialist movement. Using William Crawford's concept of photographic 'syntax', the use of the soft focus lens is explored as an example of how technology shapes style.
A detailed study of the soft focus lenses from the earliest forms to the present is presented, enumerating the core properties of pinhole, early experimental and commercial soft focus lenses. This was researched via published texts in period journals, advertising, private correspondence, interviews, and the lenses themselves. The author conducted a wide range of in-studio experiments with both period and contemporary soft focus lenses to evaluate their character and distinct features, as well as to validate source material.
Nodal points of this history and development are explored in the critical debate between the diffuse and sharp photographic image, beginning with the competition between the calotype and daguerreotype. The role of George Davison's The Old Farmstead is presented as well as the invention of the first modern soft focus lens, the Dallmeyer-Bergheim, and its function in the development of the popular Pictorialist lens, the Pinkham & Smith Semi-Achromatic. The trajectory of the soft focus lens is plotted against the Pictorialist movement, noting the correlation betwixt them, and the modern renaissance of soft focus lenses and the diffuse aesthetic.
This thesis presents a unique history of photography modeled around the determining character of technology and the interdependency of syntax, style and art
Coming to terms with the National Socialist Past in teamWorx's TV Event Movies: 'Dresden' (2006), 'Nicht alle waren Mörder' (2006) and 'Die Flucht' (2007)
No full textThis thesis examines three made-for-television ‘Event Movies’ from the German production company teamWorx, made between 2006 and 2007 – Dresden (2006), Nicht alle waren Mörder (2006) and Die Flucht (2007) – within the context of contemporary debates of ‘Vergangenheitsbewältigung’ or ‘coming to terms with the past’ in Germany. It will deal with specific debates in memory of the National Socialist past, namely representations of Germans as victims of the Second World War and memory of the Holocaust. Although in recent years the importance of teamWorx’s television films has begun to be acknowledged by scholars in both Germany and the UK, this thesis represents the first attempt to analyse these three Event Movies as a unit and to explore in-depth the teamWorx company and its attitudes to historical film. As such, two interviews will be relied on throughout this thesis, with chairman of the board Nico Hofmann and Die Flucht’s director Kai Wessel. In order to place the films within the context of contemporary debates on memory of the Nazi past in Germany, the thesis will undertake a filmic analysis of the Event Movies, supported by both the intentions of the filmmakers and critical responses in the contemporary press. Of primary importance for the thesis will be the twin concerns of the authenticity of teamWorx’s productions, as claimed by the filmmakers and the Event Movies’ borrowing of filmmaking devices from Hollywood genres, in particular the melodrama. Following this analysis it will be asked to what extent the Event Movies affect and reflect contemporary debates on the legacy of National Socialism and how these films contribute to the normalisation of the Nazi past in Germany
Coming to terms with the National Socialist Past in teamWorx's TV Event Movies: 'Dresden' (2006), 'Nicht alle waren Mörder' (2006) and 'Die Flucht' (2007).
No full textThis thesis examines three made-for-television ‘Event Movies’ from the German production company teamWorx, made between 2006 and 2007 – Dresden (2006), Nicht alle waren Mörder (2006) and Die Flucht (2007) – within the context of contemporary debates of ‘Vergangenheitsbewältigung’ or ‘coming to terms with the past’ in Germany. It will deal with specific debates in memory of the National Socialist past, namely representations of Germans as victims of the Second World War and memory of the Holocaust. Although in recent years the importance of teamWorx’s television films has begun to be acknowledged by scholars in both Germany and the UK, this thesis represents the first attempt to analyse these three Event Movies as a unit and to explore in-depth the teamWorx company and its attitudes to historical film. As such, two interviews will be relied on throughout this thesis, with chairman of the board Nico Hofmann and Die Flucht’s director Kai Wessel.
In order to place the films within the context of contemporary debates on memory of the Nazi past in Germany, the thesis will undertake a filmic analysis of the Event Movies, supported by both the intentions of the filmmakers and critical responses in the contemporary press. Of primary importance for the thesis will be the twin concerns of the authenticity of teamWorx’s productions, as claimed by the filmmakers and the Event Movies’ borrowing of filmmaking devices from Hollywood genres, in particular the melodrama. Following this analysis it will be asked to what extent the Event Movies affect and reflect contemporary debates on the legacy of National Socialism and how these films contribute to the normalisation of the Nazi past in Germany
Art and the unconscious : a semiotic case study of the painting process
No full textThis dissertation is an attempt to design an interpretation model for the comprehension of unconscious content in artworks, as well as to find painting techniques to free the unconscious mind, allowing it to be expressed through artwork. The interpretation model, still in its infancy, is ripe for further development. The unconscious mind is a fascinating subject—in art production as well as in many scientific fields. This hidden part of the mind, being the source of creativity, constitutes an important foundation for many possible and valuable inquiries in multiple areas of knowledge. In the present study, the unconscious is approached from an art-educational perspective.
The nature of the unconscious is addressed through the theories of Carl Gustav Jung and Charles Sanders Peirce, as well as through the information gained from data the author produced herself during the experimental painting process she devised for this study. For psychological distinctions not addressed by Jung, the theories of Sigmund Freud are used to forward this inquiry into the unconscious mind.
A research method was created to bring Peirce’s theories into consonance with Jung’s amplification method. Since Peirce’s theories are challenging to read, to avoid misinterpretation, the author used Phyllis Chiasson’s 2001 book Peirce’s Pragmatism: The Design for Thinking as a secondary source. Peirce’s three modes of reality—firstness, secondness, and thirdness—were utilized to interpret artworks. This three-mode reality allows interpreters to reflect on their subjective feelings and then to compare them to collected data. The interpreters’ intuitive self-interpretations often correlate well with the more objective data.
In this approach to interpretation, the work of art is seen as a sign, in the Jungian as well as in the Peircean sense, and interpretation seeks to discover a sign’s objects—icon, index, and symbol. Additionally, the objects are studied in combination with Peirce’s designation of the sign’s character elements—sinsign, qualisign, and legisign. Peirce’s theory offers a logical and productive structure for approaching a variety of signs and reaching a multiplicity of interpretations.
Jungian theories inculcated a combined psychological and artistic perspective for the interpretation of artworks. Jung’s method of amplification is an effort to bring a symbol to life, and it is used as a technique to discover—through the seeking of parallels—a possible context for any unconscious content that an image might have. In amplification, a word or element—from a fantasy, dream, or, in this study, artwork—is associated, through use of what Jung called the active imagination, with another context where it also occurs. It must be remembered that unconscious images in artworks do not easily open themselves up for interpretation. One way to interpret possibly unconscious images is for the interpreter to become vulnerable by employing his or her own unconscious mind to interpret an artwork; such use of the active imagination can enable a subjective experience of the artwork on the part of the interpreter, who might thereby uncover unconscious content.
Moreover, in this study, Jung’s theory of archetypes is employed, in parallel with Peirce’s and Jung’s theories of the sign, to illuminate an artwork’s images by connecting them with collective unconscious archetypes. The author relied upon The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images (Ronnberg and Martin 2010) as the main source for interpreting possibly unconscious elements in the artworks. This approach is especially powerful when artists interpret their own artwork—possibly leading to a galvanizing self-discovery as they revisit past encounters, personal highlights, and other pieces of unconscious content that might reveal previously unknown meaning important to their life. By comparing archetypes to the unconscious content in their own lives, people can discover themselves.
Unconscious phenomena were approached on both the theoretical and empirical levels. Different methods and ideas were used to stimulate the author’s unconscious thinking while performing artwork analyses of three paintings: surrealist Salvador Dalí’s (1904–1989) Assumpta Corpuscularia Lapislazulina; abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock’s (1912-1956) The Deep; and one painting by the author herself, and for which the process of painting is videorecorded (www.astagallery.com/academic.html).
With regard to the third painting interpreted, the author is the study subject, and her artistic production is used as an opportunity to explore the unconscious mind. During the act of painting, an attempt is made to free unconscious thinking by fusing Dalí’s and Pollock’s methods as well as by testing multiple other methods. The author’s artistic production was conjoined with use of a technique that is called the verbal protocol method, which generates additional data not necessarily visible in the final artwork. This method unseals the artist’s tacit knowledge, which in normal circumstances remains silent.
In the verbal protocol method, the author, while engaged in the act of painting, speaks aloud the stream of consciousness that accompanies and guides the art-making activity; the recorded and transcribed monologue from the artistic production is supplied, in both Finnish and English, in appendices. This thinking-aloud technique allows a person to become more self-aware and to create more solutions while struggling with emergent artistic problems. Such narratives can reveal more about the painting than the completed artwork alone can convey. Along with the artist’s finished painting and the videorecorded material, narratives produced during the painting activity were interpreted. Moreover, the discoveries arising from the author’s interpretation of her own artwork are correlated with some of the latest research on the unconscious.
This study allows the reader-viewer an intimate glimpse into the author’s subjective painting experience and demonstrates the participation of the unconscious in an artwork’s creation. The interpretations methodology constitutes an interpretation model suitable for other artists and art educators to follow.
Keywords: unconscious, art, archetype, mandalaei tietoa saavutettavuudest
